The first post-COVID-19 pandemic tour group from China’s Xiamen City arrived in Kinmen County yesterday for a two-day trip.
The 22-member group reached Shuishe Pier at about 10am via the “mini-three links,” which are direct ferries connecting Kinmen and Matsu with Chinese-controlled Fujian Province, and was greeted by a lion dance performance organized by the Kinmen County Government.
The visit came after a group of seven travel industry representatives from Xiamen arrived in Kinmen County on Wednesday for a three-day familiarization tour.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The Kinmen trips made by the two groups were the result of joint efforts across multiple sectors, the county government said in a statement yesterday, adding that it and the local travel industry held several meetings to enhance the quality of tourism services.
Ferry services between Taiwan and China had been suspended since February 2020 due to COVID-19, with cross-strait ferry travel partially reopened for one month in January last year.
The tour group’s arrival came after the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Aug. 30 that Beijing would soon lift restrictions on group and independent travel for residents in Fujian Province to Kinmen.
China halted independent travel to Taiwan on Aug. 1, 2019, citing the poor state of cross-strait relations. It then suspended group travel in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The group’s first stop was Shuitou (水頭) in Jincheng Township (金城), famous for its traditional Southern Fukienese-style architecture. They also visited sites such as Chen Jing-lan Western-style House and Southern Stone Tidal Weir Park yesterday.
They are set to visit Mingyi Old Street and the historic Mofan Street today before returning to Xiamen via the direct ferry route in the afternoon.
The Kinmen County Government said it has also approved the applications of 27 independent Chinese travelers to visit the county on Wednesday for a two-day tour.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
RSS